The invention generally to gripping apparatus and more particularly concerns a finger type gripping apparatus which is intended to be attached to the end of an industrial robot or manipulator.
The rapid growth and increasing importance of manipulators or industrial robots into an expanding range of part handling applications has emphasized the need for improved grippers or gripping apparatuses. The gripping apparatus is used in association with a manipulator to interface with the workpiece which is being handled and necessarily plays a integral part in the successful solution of any robot implemented workhandling assignment.
Of the many types of grippers which have been available in the past, the most widely utilized is the finger type in which a plurality of mechanical fingers coact to selectively grasp and release a workpiece. In many applications, the prior art grippers have lacked flexibility, both as to adaption to workpieces of diverse shape and as to orientational capabilities. Versatility of the gripper, and ultimately the entire workhandling apparatus is a direct function of flexibility.
Both application flexibility and orientational capability are enhanced by a reduction in gripper size. Many applications upon internal surfaces require the gripper to enter the workpiece through a small hole and to reorient inside the cavity. A compact size obviously assists gripper entry into the cavity. A shorter gripper length also assists in reorienting the gripper inside the cavity. Additionally, a shortened gripper length also assists in reducing the moment arm which results whenever a manipulator is radially extended from its base.
Further, many prior art grippers are unreliable in hostile environments containing dirt or grit. The grit may interfere with the mechanical operation and may, through the course of time, render the gripper inoperative.